Ntsika Kota reflects on how a hobby earned him a Commonwealth Short Story Prize
Ntsika Kota, who is a self-taught writer, won the 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa for his short story, 'And the Earth Drank Deep'. Picture: @cwwriters/Twitter
Ntsika Kota has made history as the first eSwatini writer to win the 2022 Global Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa.
Kota is also a chemistry graduate from South Africa's Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape.
The 29-year-old is the first writer from eSwatini to be shortlisted for the prize and to win it.
The book, titled And the Earth Drank Deep, is a fictional story that talks about a group of villagers living in a hunter-gatherer community as they encounter threats from wild animals, diseases and death.
Speaking to Pippa Hudson, a jubilant Kota says he is yet to come to terms with this victory.
I think it will take a very long time to sink in, probably because there was no ambition as a professional writer and I really just submitted the story.
Ntsika Kota - author
I was a chemist by training and there was a time in postgraduate where I sort of lamented not becoming a writer and I just thought why not, it was always a hobby that I enjoyed and it was never going to be anything more than that until this.
Ntsika Kota - author
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This article first appeared on CapeTalk : Ntsika Kota reflects on how a hobby earned him a Commonwealth Short Story Prize
